Imperialism played a partial part in the formation of WW1, creating rising tensions across Europe,
however the cause of WW1 was an amalgamation of a variety of other factors. Imperialism, typically
in Africa, played a part in both rising European tensions, and as well providing resources to their
parent countries. However, other events, such as the Imperial Arms race also played key parts in the
creation of the first global war.
The colonisation of Africa, driven by global imperialism played a large part in the causation of World
War 1. After the Berlin conference, Africa became somewhat evenly divided amongst all of the
European nations, this in itself created increasing tensions between all of the large European
superpowers. Before the conference, European countries did share borders, however not to the extent
that they did in Africa, sharing multiple borders across the continent. Moreover the conference caused
conflicts between European countries, the pink map was a proposal by Portugal, to link their two
colonies of Mozambique and Angola, this however angered Britain and caused diplomatic conflict, as
Britain intended to link their two colonies in South Africa and Cairo. Furthermore, the occupation of
Africa by the European superpowers gave them cheap labour and resources, necessary to produce
their war machines, this significantly increased the likelihood of a global war, as these alongside these
resources produced by colonies, large quantities of soldiers were available. Although the example
provided is Africa, Britain’s Indian colony provided over 1,500,000 soldiers during WW1, displaying
the incredible magnitude and resources available through imperialism. Africa provided both physical
resources, troops and economic support through the slave trade and selling of harvested resources, this
along with the conflicts caused by the desire for land and territorial power played a crucial part in the
causation of WW1 and provides an example of the conflicts and dangers caused by global
imperialism.
Although Imperialism played a crucial role in the instigation of WW1, many other events contributed
as significantly if not more. The Naval Arms race, although just between Britain and Germany, rose
tensions and significantly altered the balance of naval power. In 1905, Germany was a booming
powerhouse producing a large fleet of ships, only a year later Britain revealed their “Dreadnaught”,
Wilhelm, not wanting to be left out produced his own Dreadnaughts thus making Britain feel
threatened themselves. This escalated to the point that espionage was being done just so either side
had more ships than the other. The Naval Arms race not only rose tensions between two of Europe’s
biggest superpowers but also provided both sides with considerable navy power. By the end of 1914,
the ratio of dreadnoughts between Britain and Germany was 29:17. Even though Britain had slightly
less than double Germany’s ships, Britain had proportionally more personnel and tonnage,
emphasizing how even though Germany was in possession of 17 large naval vessels, they still weren’t
on the same level of Naval power as Britain. At the “end” of the arms race, Germany had spent a
significant amount of its national budget on producing ships and could not fully commit to a military
and economic race with Britain anymore. Germany was left with a formidable fleet of dreadnoughts
large enough to pose a threat to Britain which had cost them dramatically, and they likely desired to
use them.
Although imperialism played a crucial role in the formation of The Great War, many other factors
played key parts equally as much as imperialism. Militarism and the desire for power played just as
much a part as imperialism did. Imperialism rose tensions amongst Europe whilst providing the
superpowers with enough resources to fund their conquests and armaments, concepts like Nationalism
were the real driving force behind the initiation of the War, being the cause of the Unification of
Germany and the Balkan wars for independence. Political concepts were the key building blocks of
the first world war, however its causation cannot be assumed to be only imperialism.